A Silent Voice - Reviews

Great anime movie. I know that the focus was not on romance, but there seemed to be something and they didn't clarify it at the end, and that made me angry. Its a very good emotional show, you may cry, you may smile, but you will probably finish the movie feeling all warm. I don't always like shows or movies like this, but this is good. It left me wondering what was going to happen next and it wasn't too weeby, although it had its normal anime tropes at some moments. 

Everyone has stories about bullies and victims, but there have been very few features, namely animated ones, which actually dare to show the raw emotional honesty of such situations, particularly from the West. Luckily fans of traditional animation have a great contender for this subject: A Silent Voice, directed by Naoko Yamada. Based on a similarly titled Japanese graphic novel series, this movie doesn't hold back on showing the true tragedies of the story it tells, making its uplifting resolution all the more meaningful.

A Silent Voice tells the tale of both the growth and redemption of a former bully, Shoya Ishida. We first meet him as a High School teenager as he solemnly contemplates suicide on account of guilt for his past behavior, and for the first 20 minutes we get to see what drove him to the point. In Elementary School, Shoya mercilessly ostracized a new classmate, Shoko Nishimiya, a deaf girl who occasionally talked but mostly communicated in sign language. The cruelest thing he did was to rip out her hearing aids and throw them out the window. Eventually, Shoko transferred to another school, and then he too was bullied by his former classmates, arguably as punishment for his actions. At this point the film transitions back to the present, but rather than throwing away his life, Shoya decides to make amends. He takes sign language classes, and eventually encounters Shoko again for the first time in five years. Gradually, the two become friends. Simultaneously, Shoya also makes friends with another boy, Tomohiro Nagatsuka. Due to his guilt, however, he hesitates to look at people in the eye, and eventually comes to realize that Shoko, too, has feelings of self-resentment and must help her overcome her troubles.

In lesser hands, this story could come across as a preachy, melodramatic soap opera, but director Yamada and her staff at Kyoto Animation manage to avoid this pitfall and succeed in making this a relatable tearjerker with a lot of heart. The development between the two leads is compelling, richly tragic, and emotional, and will no doubt wrench tears from the iciest of viewers. There are a plethora of other characters who make up the story who are rounded in varying degrees, although not to the same extent as we get to see from the leads. Occasionally the plot does rush some minor developments (on account of trying to compress a six-book manga into a lengthy film), but while careful concentration is required to fully discern the occasional subplots, nobody in this story comes across as truly unsympathetic. The only exception might be Naoka Ueno, a rather nasty and bitchy character who arguably comes across as worse than Shoya, never showing any major growth from her misdeeds and instead continuing to bully poor Shoko. One scene where she openly confesses how much she detests the deaf girl is particularly mean-spirited.

Aesthetically, A Silent Voice might not be as lavishly detailed or colorful as, say, a Studio Ghibli production, but frankly, having said that, the actual animation is no slouch. The backgrounds are lovingly rendered and the character designs, while distinctively "Anime" in appearance, all have a distinct look and feel to them that makes each easy to identify. There are occasional uses of computer imagery (such as a brief but nonetheless thrilling scene where we go on a roller coaster ride at a carnival), but mostly Yamada chooses to execute the film in a rather stylish way. This is done through the use of different camera cutaways and lavish shots, such as fish swimming through a brook and occasional fireworks, giving A Silent Voice a bit of an "art film" tilt. To illustrate Shoya's isolation we see X's marked on the people he avoids making contact with, which may seem as a bit too "on the nose" at times, but having said that, it's a clever approach that works wonders. Kensuke Ushio's primarily piano-driven (and sparse) score is also a nice touch. It's also to the film's credit that the film backs off on dialogue in certain occasions when it needs to, rather than dumbing everything down to its audience.

Further complimenting A Silent Voice's atmosphere is its English dubbing. NYAV Post has done a lot of great dubs over the years in no small part to the talented duo of Michael Sinterniklaas and Stephanie Sheh. This yet another winner for them, and certainly up there with their best, with excellent performances from everyone involved. The real triumph of the dub is the casting of an actual deaf actress to portray Shoko, Lexi Crowden. Every second of her turn comes across as very believable and convincing. The end result is all the more tangible and authentic because of it. The same is true with the casting of the children for the Elementary School scenes, a practice that I continue to applaud NYAV Post for still going through with.

A Silent Voice clocks approximately over two hours, which may cause the film to come across as a bit lengthy at times, but that it manages to keep a good pace on its story and maintain interest even when it occasionally slows down is a testament to its success as a film. There's a reason why Makoto Shinkai, director of Japan's current highest-grossing feature your name (released the same year, incidentally), expressed enthusiasm about A Silent Voice; it deserves every ounce of praise. This is a modern day winner filled with genuine heart, and offers a most relatable and universal message without being preachy.

Was the show good ? Yes everything was perfect, the story the animation the sound everything in a perspective the characters were perfect as well but I am sorry, even though I say that the characters were even perfect, I can not pass the bullying part, when you bully some one in the past, when you grow up you at least like the word, freaking GROW UP  so when they did not, well one of them at least I did not like it and this made the characters made me go mad,

She got alone time with the disabled girl, told her she hated her ( ok, can understand that ) the disabled girl said sorry for being disabled I guess because the girl was saying stupid things like ' Oh, you never understand our struggle, it was all about you and still is ' ( I am paraphrashing but more or less it is basically like that ) and slap her. Now, this is a big lesson for us people to begin with aswell like when I watched it, I said this to myself ' I don't care what is your problem is, the girl you are telling this about can not hear or speak ( well she can but whatever you get my point I am trying to make ) like you can at least her people, their talk, their laugh, their cries the girl can't, what is your problem ' Because I did not see any background from her, not even a quick fast 3 minutes or something. 

Anyway, to sum this up, it was actually a very very thoughtfully created show. Recommended %1000000

I had a rough time gathering enough courage to watch A Silent Voice.  Many thanks to Xairyan and danyemma1 for their reviews which convinced me to take in this movie.  The issue of bullies and bullying has always been a tough issue for me, a former teacher.  Sometimes a bully can develop a network of allies as friends, classmates, and parents to make his role in school difficult to overcome.  And, once I watched A Silent Movie, something remarkable happened.

A bully can actually be taken as the sympathetic figure.  This would be the case for the movie’s key character, Shouya. 

Shouya  Ishida treated Shouko Nishimiya deplorably when they were in elementary school, simply because Nishimiya was deaf and spoke clumsily.  Class members also had a hand in distancing Shouko as the mean-spirited Ueno, though some went out on a limb to protect her as Kawai and Sahara.  But Shouya went way beyond decency in tormenting Shouko.  This leads to two results: 1) Shouko transfers out, and 2) the class makes Shouya a pariah.  Shouya enters high school friendless.

The whole movie is an epic of redemption as Shouya strives to regain his humanity and gain the forgiveness of Shouko, which (unbeknownst to Shouya) could be the easiest thing with Shouko's gentle nature.  But there are obstacles.

Place guilt high on the list of blockades.  It is remarkable how many characters are oozing with it.  It is easy to mark Shouya's pangs about his cruelty.  Kawai wasn't assertive enough in coming to Shouko's aid.  Sahara was not brave enough.  Ueno never could accept the deaf girl's obvious needs.  Shouko's sister Yuzuru guilts herself over the morbid subjects in her photography.  Even Shouko, the victim of all the abuse, is constantly apologizing over the fact that her disability seemed to be inconvenient for her classmates.

Guilt leads to thoughts of suicide.  Honestly, I lost count of how many times Shouya went off a bridge or a building, though the last time shouldn't count.  He was trying to save Shouko who was taking a dive because she saw herself as the cause of all the misery her friends endured.  The deaf girl tried to off herself.  Yep, the crisis-point of the whole movie.  Boy, you thought Shouya was messed up as he was traveling that comeback trail.

Friendship is a major sub-theme in the movie.  When Shouya becomes public-enemy #1, one feature of the anime was the application of a blue 'X' over the faces of everybody in Shouya's new school.  These 'X's fall off (or, in Ueno's case, fall off, go back on, fall off as a matter of course) as Shouya makes progress in gaining a friend.  HIs first victory was Nagatsuka, a classmate who was being bullied (irony!) until Shouya came to his aid.  Nagatsuka trains Shouya in what a best friend is and can do.  This gives Shouya the courage to gain Shouko's forgiveness (slowly, ever so slowly).  He gradually gathers together the classmates who were a part of that horrible experience for Shouko and weld together a loose alliance of 'friends.'  But this is almost ruined by Ueno who arranged a chance meeting with Kazuki, a classmate and close comrade to Shouya, and the first to ditch him when the school cracked down hard on bullies and had warned high school classmates of Shouya's sordid past.  Shouya resents this try at reconciliation and questions why he is doing this 'sweetness' for Shouko.  The friendship between Shouko and Shouya is endangered, and Shouko has offered her blaring 'I love you,' confession.  Shouya takes the sounds she makes for 'The moon.'  That course … ne'er did run smooth.

It takes nearly dying to right the course.  Shouya rises from his coma to rush to the bridge where Shouko always threw breadcrumbs to the koi.  Both apologize for all the terrible things each did and endured.  But Shouya's issue of alienation to his high school continues.  There are still so many X-masked faces to look into the eye.

It takes time for redemption to hit but putting the terrible things behind you and charge forward is grand advice for a messed-up kid as Shouya.

The anime was a wonderful blend of drama and touches of humor intermixed with moments of tragedy.  Scenes dash from bleak to bright as emotions are worked to a frenzy.  Crying is normal ... and healthy.  Catharsis can do wonders as one sees a reprehensible dolt as Shouya finally makes that break-through.

A great movie worth watching again and again!

 GET YOUR TISSUES READY.

Very captivating and touching story. It's quite a realistic movie for a slice of of life anime. Despite the fact that a lot of people categorize this as romance, I disagree. Maybe in the world of these relatable characters, a romance blooms between our protagaonists in the future??? but throughout there is that potrayal of a genuine affection and understanding. I'll let y'all be the judges of that. In other words, this anime might make you cry...